G

Effects of institutionalisation

Rutter - ERA (English and Romanian adoptee) study

followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain. Control group of 52 British adoptees. Their development was evaluated at 4, 6, 11 & 15

When first arriving in the UK, 1/5 of the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development.

By 11 the intellectual development between the adoptees was different dependant on the age of adoption. Those adopted before 6 months old has an average IQ of 108 whereas those adopted after 2 years had a mean IQ of 77

Children adopted after six months also tended to show signs of disinhibited attachment (clinginess and attention seeking indiscriminately towards all adults). Those adopted before 6 months very rarely displayed this behaviour.

The Bucharest early intervention project - Zeanah:

assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care. Compared to a control group of 50 who had never lived in an institution. Attachment type was measured using the strange situation. and interview with carers.

  • 74% of the control group were securely attached.
  • 65% of experimental group were classified with disorganised attachment
  • 44% of experimental group showed characteristics of disinhibited attachment

Effects of institutionalisation:

Disinhibited attachment- a typical effect of spending lots of time in an institution. Typically features clingy and attention seeking behaviour indiscriminately to any adult with no stranger anxiety.

Mental ā€˜retardationā€™: severe mental inhibition. Most children in Rutterā€™s study showed signs of this, however most of those adopted before 6 months were at the same level as the control group by 4 years old.

Evaluation -

+Real life application: has enhanced our understanding of the effects of institutionalisation on childrenā€™s development

-Romanian orphanages were not typical: the orphanages the children were coming from and being studied from were not normal as they had particularly low standards of care - not completely generalisable

-Confounding variable: The researchers did not alter the adoption process, the orphans that were adopted first may have just been more social and would have developed better regardless of the time of adoption.